"When I drove past, the salesman from the dealership was on the phone and the driver was looking very sheepish.

"It had been raining just shortly before and I'm guessing they were going too fast which caused them to spin out and hit a nearby car."

A spokesman for Essex Police said no arrest were made.

They said: "We were called to the scene between junction 30 and 29 shortly after 10am on Saturday 5 July.

"This was following reports of a red Ferrari which collided into the central barrier. There were no injuries."

A spokesperson from Ferrari said: "Ferrari takes the privacy and confidentiality of its clients very seriously, and therefore we are unable to provide any information about an incident of this type to a third party, except the necessary authorities where we are asked to do so."